Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is the concept of a “secondary” or “bonus” game that may be played in conjunction with a “base” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the base game, which is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome in the base game. Generally, bonus games provide a greater expectation of winning than the base game and may also be accompanied with more attractive or unusual video displays and/or audio. Bonus games may additionally award players with “progressive jackpot” awards that are funded, at least in part, by a percentage of coin-in from the gaming machine or a plurality of participating gaming machines.
Another way to increase the entertainment value of a game is to enhance the display of the gaming machines. For gaming machines with video displays, improvements in video technology have enabled the display of richer and more colorful graphics. For gaming machines with mechanical displays, however, the enhancements early on were less technologically advanced. For example, some mechanical reel symbols were colored by backlighting the mechanical symbols with colored lighting elements. Sometimes the reel itself might contain electroluminescent elements that defined one or more reel symbols. To display a symbol in multiple colors or formats using such an arrangement, multiple electroluminescent elements were needed for the symbol.
Recent advances in transmissive display technology have made it possible to more easily modify the appearance of mechanical displays. A transmissive display is essentially a transparent video display that is superimposed over the mechanical display. The transmissive display may then be operated to display selected video images over the mechanical display. These video images may include translucent portions such that the underlying mechanical display is visible, but in an altered state (i.e., different color, texture, etc.). The video images may also include opaque portions so as to completely block out parts of the underlying mechanical display. For information regarding the use of transmissive display technology in gaming machines and for embodiments employing transmissive displays, the reader is referred to commonly-assigned U.S. Published Application No. 20040198485, titled “Gaming Machine with Superimposed Display Image,” filed on Nov. 7, 2003, and also to commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,433, titled “Reel Spinning slot Machine With Superimposed Video Image,” issued on Feb. 11, 2003, each of which being incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The above-described transmissive display technology gives wagering game designers the capability and flexibility to more easily design and modify the appearance of mechanical displays. Accordingly, there is a need to develop new and improved wagering games for mechanical displays using this technology, with features that take full advantage of the capabilities of the transmissive display to thereby enhance the entertainment value of the wagering games.